curried and candied.

now that i have finished watching the complete series of "My So Called Life" and painfully reliving the emotions of my 14 year old self, it's time i turn my attention to more productive things. food! this winter has left me very unmotivated to do anything of consequence both in and outside of the house. short days and long, wet dog walks are not exactly what i call inspiring. needless to say, i have spent a lot of time catching up on nostalgic t.v. and not so much time sewing, knitting or really cooking.
while the sun has not exactly made much of a show here in portland, the days are longer and there are some sun breaks amidst the rain. i've made some headway in the garden and am starting to see some real possibilities for a few more raised beds and a functioning stone walkway into the backyard. i even have plans to deal with a defunct section of fencing that will be both attractive and functional.
that is all for another day, however. today, with angela chase and jordan catalano finally put to rest, i decided to dive into a real meal for aaron and myself. tonight's main event is one that has become a staple in our home. though i discovered this recipe through "Bon Appetit's" Food Lover's Cleanse, Curried Black-Eyed Peas actually comes from "Anjum's New Indian" by Anjum Anand. It is fairly straight forward, totally nutritious, vegan, filling and just bursting with flavor. i have been trying to use more dried beans as they are cheaper, i can use only what i need, and i'm not left with a tin can that has to be recycled. Black-eyed peas only take about 30 minutes of simmering to take them from their dried form to a ready-to-eat cooked form. Simply delightful.
To accompany this dish, I adapted Madhur Jaffrey's Salmon in a Bengali Mustard Sauce recipe replacing the salmon with a wallet friendly tofu. when i first tried this dish, i made it with the salmon and it blew my mind. when a vegetarian friend came over for dinner one night, i made tofu instead and it was surprisingly delicious. as usual these two dishes complimented each other and, as usual, there is not one scrap of food leftover.

the real treat tonight was in finding time to do something i had always wanted to try. candied lemon slices! i don't have any big plans for using these as a garnish but i had some lemons left over from a recipe and thought this would be a great way to use them up. i did some internet searching and discovered this is actually quite simple and doesn't require a whole lot of work. i pulled this final concoction from several different sources so here's how i ended up making this little treat:

Candied Lemon Slices


2 lemons sliced thinly (about 1/8th inch)
2 cups water
2 cups sugar


after slicing the lemons, remove any seeds. bring a medium sauce pan filled about 1/2-3/4 water to a boil. prepare a bowl with iced water while waiting for the water to boil. when the water reaches a boil, remove from heat and place your lemon slices into the water. stirring occasionally, leave them in the water for 1-2 minutes. drain the lemon slices and then plunge into the prepared iced water bath. leave in for another minute. fill a large skillet with the water and sugar and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. when this mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to medium low and carefully add the lemon slices. allow the lemons to simmer (not boil) for about 1 hour.

at the end of the hour, remove the slices to a cooling rack and/or parchment paper to dry. drying could take 24 hours. the internet authorities claim the lemons remain tacky though i'm not sure there will be any left for me to give a first hand account...

i dipped the not-yet-dried slices into some lavender sugar (throw some sugar in jar with some dried lavender flowers and wait a month or so (mine has been sitting for years!) until it all smells/tastes like lavender sugar). we'll see how they turn out!

UPDATE!

due to popular demand, well, actually because of lydia's comment below asking how they turned out, i will reveal how these sweet treats turned out! i left the lemons to sit on a cooling rack for about 2 days and they firmed up a bit but remained slightly tacky. i placed them in a glass container and have been storing them in the fridge. there's no issues with them sticking together and so far the taste seems to be getting better! this is something i certainly will make over and over as they satiate my insatiable sweet tooth and they're probably healthy. probably.

limes and grapefruits next?


i also strained the lemony simple syrup for some future use. i'm thinking summertime cocktails?